[JoeSoap]

I’ve just received an email from EDF inviting me back to their Standard Variable Tariff… their cheapest tariff, they say. I haven’t checked but I shouldn’t think they have any fixes on offer, at least not worth considering.

I’ll wait until April to see what the government comes up with. I wouldn’t consider going through the hassle of switching supplier right now without a considerable incentive which I don’t see happening until government support ends. A couple of quid a month used to swing it for me if I rated the supplier but it seems a drop in the ocean now considering what we pay. Now, if we’re talking a tenner or more every month then it would get me thinking 🤔 😂

[retrotecchie]

@JoeSoap

I watched the Martin Lewis thing on ITV a couple of nights ago. Grant Shapps got a good roasting, but ML said there will be no sign of any new 'fixed deals' until at least May at the earliest.

[JoeSoap]

@retrotecchie

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

I thought Shapps did reasonably well in a pit of adversity. The level of standing charges was clearly a sore point with the audience especially when encouraged my ML - who wouldn’t want lower standing charges- but would they want higher unit prices instead?

suppliers will have had a rough time while the price cap have followed wholesale prices upwards, but now will be in a better place as the process reverses. The suppliers in the strongest positions financially might try to capture some extra customers by being first to offer some fix deals, but generally the best time to fix is when prices are rising. Still if the price advantage is big enough people will switch.

If there is little return to fix tariff offering, the public will rightly consider that the suppliers are acting illegally in unison.

[JoeSoap]

@MAW

… and we could all live in grey apartment blocks and drive around in Trabants. Just think… no envy.

[JoeSoap]

@MAW

I choose which company I give my business to. I choose what kind of tariff I have. I chose how I pay. I would hate not to have choice. Where would it end?

Interesting last paragraph there. Statement of fact with no caveat of ‘I think’ or ‘In my opinion’.

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by MAW

Oh no. Another one who thinks they have a choice.

So I imagined the three choices I outlined? You’ll be telling me next that you didn’t choose to pay on receipt of bill.

[Mailman]

@JoeSoap

To answer your original post, yes I think fixed tariffs will be offered within the next 3-6 months again BUT expect to see such tariffs at a higher level than SVT for some time and there will be less of them because of the smaller number of suppliers! Eon Next have traditionally been good in having exit-free fixed rates - well at least all of my previous have been exit-free.

We shall see what happens from April 1st but it is now very clear that the EPG will not be set at the £3000 annualised level otherwise the rates would have been announced by now. I expect to see the heralds trumpeting keeping the £2500 rates on Budget Day in 5 days time although SC are almost certainly changing and there may be minor changes to the unit rates to compensate.

[meldrewreborn]

@Mailman

ML made the point that price changes for prepayment meters would have had to be notified to whatever body adjusts the rates imbedded in the meter/card/key (I'm not at all certain how its done!) by now so we can be certain that little change will happen in April.

I'd expect fixed rates to be lower than SVR - otherwise there is little point in offering them.

[JoeSoap]

@Mailman @meldrewreborn

I don't think it's out of the question to see fixed rates at higher levels than the SVR and it certainly happened at various times last summer. Some choose to fix for the sake of budgeting just in case the SVR rates rise during the term of the fix. There seems to be more awareness of projections now. I had never heard of Cornwall Insight until last summer for instance and it was the first time I had used their projections to decide about fixing. There was always a short lag between them revising their predictions upwards and the energy companies raising their fixed rates. I fixed during one of those windows but it all became pretty much irrelevant in the end once the government stepped in.